Writing to Learn Math II

In addition to all the funny Google searches, I get plenty of normal inquiries about math topics. People come here looking for help with fractions, wordproblems, and mathclubactivities — no surprise, those — but I would never have predicted the popularity of the search topic “writing in math class.”

Last year, I compiled a variety of math journal resources, but I’ve found many more since then, especially for older (high school and college) students. So if you’re looking for new ways to get your math students writing…

Problems with Math Journals

Several people who commented on last year’s article made excellent points. When we plan to implement math journals, we need to consider these warnings:

mathmom wrote: “For a kid who does not like or is not good at writing, math class may be their one safe refuge… I think that for someone who is more right-brained, visual-spatial, and who doesn’t need or naturally tend to think about math in terms of words, it could be quite torturous and not at all helpful…”

I had some doubts of my own: “Many of the articles on journaling were slanted toward elementary teachers, which often (unfortunately!) means teachers who are not that comfortable with math themselves. In their hands, does journaling become an excuse to replace math content with ‘How I feel about…’ whatever?”

Dave Marain wrote: “Journal-writing may not be as highly valued by many secondary educators who feel tremendous pressure to cover the content…”

And jd2718 agreed: “I manage to work writing in, but not in journal form. I see the value, but I also feel time pressure…”

Go back and read the whole discussion. You will find plenty of advice, encouragement, and practical ideas.

Journal Ideas for Older Students

How to Write a Solution
“You’ve figured out the solution to the problem — fantastic! But you’re not finished. Whether you are writing solutions for a competition, a journal, a message board, or just to show off for your friends, you must master the art of communicating your solution clearly.” From the AoPS articles page.

USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS)
“As opposed to most mathematics competitions, the USAMTS allows students a full month to work out their solutions. Carefully written justifications are required for each problem.”

Essays and Research Papers

Writing for a Math Class
Tips and sample assignments for math teachers, and advice for high school or college students writing essays — includes formatting, how to handle references, and the “Fumblerules of Grammar.”

Writing mathematics
The general rules of good writing apply to writing about math. See also the many pdf handouts from assorted college professors:

13 thoughts on “Writing to Learn Math II”

The idea of journaling in math class concerns me, and I am sad to see it become more popular. My daughter would have done great with it. She is a good writer. She is now a philosophy major. My son would have hated math class as a result. He is good at math, poor at writing. His writing skills lagged his math skills, and though now he could explain a solution in written words, back in elementary school he could not, and being required to do so might have affected his love for one thing he is really good at. He is now an engineering major and getting straight A’s. I am so very glad he did not have to “write to learn math”. He did not need to write to learn math, and neither did my daughter, who was able to write well.

Sure, writing is important, and at some point writing about math may become important for a person, depending on ones career choice, but to require it for math is a shame for those young students who are not equally adept at both writing and math or whose writing skills lag behind math skills. Why ruin math for them?

Ann, your concern is similar to mathmom’s comment last year, and I think it is a very important thing for teachers to keep in mind. One of the best things about homeschooling, IMO, is the freedom to adapt our methods to the strengths of each child.

The age of the child makes a difference, too. I try to teach to an elementary student’s strong areas as much as possible, but by the time my students reach high school, I believe they need to be working hard at their weak areas, too. I wouldn’t want to force a writing-intensive math class on a student who hated writing, but he should definitely learn to write out a solution that others can read and understand.

Don’t get me wrong, I love literacy from the bottom of my soul. But seeing math journals (especially at the elementary level) seems to me that we are sending the message that literacy > numeracy in terms of importance. Untrue. And it has caused quite a problem for the high schools sciences when the students cannot do algebra I with fluency.

Thank you for this great list of free math sites. I’ve added the Aunty Math website to my 3rd grade math word problems binder that I started for my daughter. Its an online binder that holds all these great websites with free math problems. http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1619

As a high school teacher of Mathematics, I can understand the concerns you raise regarding computational skills vs. literacy skills. However, we must never forget that mathematics is the study of logical thinking and problem solving using symbolic language (numbers and operatives).

In today’s society, communication is the most important skill that we can teach students, the ability to communicate ideas, arguments, and reasoning opens up wonderful opportunities to dialogue. The ability to logically explain the steps needed to solve a computational problem or describe the flaws in someone else’s computational problem is priceless.

We do a disservice to our students if we only focus on computational skills to the determent of logically explain the thinking behind it.

To the parent of the student who hated writing and would fail math as a result and learn to hate the subject, that is not what happens. Many times, if not most, the student learns to concisely explain their logically reasoning and discovers that it opens up completely new avenues in mathematics. Quantum Mechanics is a great example of this exciting possibility when one can express their thoughts in both written and oral formats.

The reason so many teachers are concerned about this is because every STATE TEST has open ended questions that require students to use words, numbers and pictures to show their answers. This means that students who are good at computation and memorization will have a more difficult time on this part of the test.

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